METRO subsidiary DISH provides high-quality catering data for the North Rhine-Westphalia Tourism Data Hub

A modern, integrated tool for travel planning is now at the top of the wish list for many travellers who want to discover a region. The North Rhine-Westphalia Tourism Association is responding to this trend by relying on a broad base of high-quality data. With ‘NRWow!’, the state's first AI-supported experience planner, guests receive personalised suggestions and practical support in planning their activities throughout North Rhine-Westphalia. Users can now also use the planner to schedule specific dining stops along their route. This is based on reliable information from METRO's digital subsidiary DISH, which is driving the digitalisation of the catering industry with innovative digital solutions. As part of its collaboration with the association, it enriches travel planning with up-to-date and relevant restaurant data.

The tourism Data Hub NRW, provided by the tourism association of Germany's most populous federal state, is receiving a comprehensive data upgrade: Thanks to the cooperation with DISH Digital Solutions, a subsidiary of METRO AG, the number of open tourism datasets in North Rhine-Westphalia will be expanded by around 19,000 structured pieces of information on restaurants – taken directly from the regularly updated websites of restaurants. The integration of this restaurant data into the Data Hub NRW will enable tourists to search specifically for individual culinary preferences in future – whether Italian trattoria, Japanese restaurant, vegan, café or Michelin-starred fine dining. In addition, links can be created with other tourist offers such as excursion destinations, hiking routes or city tours.

‘With this cooperation, we are contributing our digital expertise and data competence in the catering industry to work with Tourismus NRW to increase the visibility of restaurants, cafés and pubs in North Rhine-Westphalia. Visibility is a key success factor for restaurateurs – especially at a time when guests search, compare and decide online,’ explains Dr Olaf Maecker, Vice President AI & Automation.

Innovation for the industry – support from METRO

DISH is part of METRO AG, a leading international food wholesaler with a focus on HoReCa. The new cooperation is another building block in METRO's commitment to innovation to strengthen the catering industry through digitalisation. The data provided offers real added value not only to guests, but also to restaurateurs: through structured integration into open data platforms, they increase their digital presence and thus their chances of being discovered by new guests – apart from large platform monopolies.

‘The cooperation represents a milestone for the digitalisation of tourism in North Rhine-Westphalia,’ explains Dr Heike Döll-König, Managing Director of Tourismus NRW. "For the first time, restaurants outside of Google & Co. are linked to possible travel activities and sights in an independent database. Guests can thus plan their entire trip using our data. Another major advantage over Google is that some of the data is more up-to-date, meaning that unpleasant surprises such as restaurants closing at short notice are less frequent."

At the same time, the project contributes to the digital future goals of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The Data Hub NRW not only makes tourism smarter and more data-driven, it also positions the state as a pioneer in the development of a holistic data and AI ecosystem. The targeted promotion of regional data initiatives underlines the ambition of North Rhine-Westphalia to establish the state as a leading data hub and AI location in Germany and Europe.

For METRO, whose headquarters are located in Düsseldorf, the state capital of North Rhine-Westphalia, the topic represents digital innovation and support for the catering industry and is one of the many commitments that the wholesaler is pursuing in this context. ‘Digital solutions such as those from DISH demonstrate the potential of high-quality, decentralised data. This collaboration is a real win-win for all sides – from individual restaurants to international guests. At the same time, we are making it clear that digitalisation and regionality are not mutually exclusive, but rather inspire each other,’ adds Dr Volker Gläser, CEO of DISH Digital Solutions GmbH.

More information about NRWow! is available at www.nrw-tourismus.de/nrwow

Tourismus NRW e. V. is the umbrella organisation for tourism in North Rhine-Westphalia and was founded in 1997 on the initiative of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The association has around 70 members, including regional and municipal tourism organisations, tourist facilities and companies, and associations. It is based in Düsseldorf. Together with its partners, the regional association works to position North Rhine-Westphalia nationally and internationally as an important tourist destination and to strengthen North Rhine-Westphalia as a whole. Tourismus NRW e. V. also provides tourist information as open data: to this end, the association works together with the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalisation and Energy and the European Regional Development Fund. For the technical implementation, a solution was created together with other project partners such as the Fraunhofer Institute for Software and Systems Engineering that enables the exchange and networking of data within North Rhine-Westphalia. The result is the tourism data hub NRW. In addition to data from regions such as the Rhineland cycling region and the Eifel, it now also includes tourism data from cities such as Aachen, Düsseldorf, Cologne and Bonn.

DISH Digital Solutions was founded in 2015 as a wholly owned subsidiary of METRO AG to develop digital solutions that contribute to the success of HoReCa customers (hotels, restaurants and caterers). The easy-to-use solutions are designed for the demanding everyday life of restaurateurs to save time and money. Under the eponymous brand, DISH offers competitive solutions to some of the industry's most pressing challenges. These include an online ordering system without commission payments, a POS solution, a reservation tool and Payment solution among others. More than 360,000 customers in 16 countries are already using DISH products to improve their business results. For more information please visit www.dish.co.

METRO is a leading international food wholesaler which specialises in serving the needs of hotels, restaurants, and caterers (HoReCa) as well as independent resellers (Traders). Around the world, METRO has approx. 15 million customers who benefit from the wholesale company’s unique multichannel mix: customers can purchase their goods in one of the large stores in their area as well as by delivery (Food Service Distribution, FSD) – all digitally supported and connected. In parallel, METRO MARKETS is being developed as an international online marketplace for the needs of professional customers which has been growing and expanding continuously since 2019. Acting sustainably is one of the company principles of METRO which has been listed in various sustainability indices and rankings, including MSCI, Sustainalytics and CDP. METRO operates in more than 30 countries and employs over 85,000 people worldwide. In financial year 2023/24, METRO generated sales of €31 billion. More information can be found at MPULSE.de, our online magazine.